PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Annette

Annette (2021)
Written by Ron Mael, Russell Mael, and Leos Carax
Directed by Leos Carax

Annette is a movie whose fans won’t simply like this picture, but they will adore it. The film is the brainchild of eccentric musicians Sparks (brothers Ron & Russell Mael), who have been itching to get into cinema for decades. In the 1970s, they were on the verge of collaborating with French comedic filmmaker Jacques Tati until he took ill. Now they have produced a film that most certainly their own, full of strange musings on death & love, all suffused with a wry sense of dark humor. I can’t say I loved this movie, but I certainly appreciated what a unique production it was; it’s genuinely unlike anything else coming out right now.

Movie Review – Censor

Censor (2021)
Written by Prano Bailey-Bond & Anthony Fletcher
Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond

As the home video market grew in the late 1970s and into the 1980s/90s, the United Kingdom clamped down on horror and pornography films they deemed harmful to society. This came as a result of significant film distributors keeping away from that market out of privacy fears. The gap was filled by an avalanche of low-budget content. The British Board of Film Censors employed people to watch these movies and determine a rating, and also, if they were so beyond the pale, they should have prosecution brought against them. These films would garner the nickname “video nasties.” It’s against this moral panic over movies that the film Censor takes place.

Movie Review – Gunpowder Milkshake

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Written by Navot Papushado & Ehud Lavski
Directed by Navot Papushado

Seth and I don’t always agree on things, as shocking as that might seem. When I first saw Gunpowder Milkshake’s trailer, I could feel the intrigue bubbling within my system, almost dashed to bits and pieces as my husband went, “Ew, no.” (Ed. note: I have literally zero memory of ever seeing this trailer)

Let’s not fault the man; he did not grow up watching martial arts/action movies. Unlike my husband, raised in a Christain household, my single mom tended to let us rent movies at will. If those movies didn’t even up being the regular popular picks, they managed to be action movies many times.

TV Review – Work in Progress Season 1

Work in Progress Season 1 (Showtime)
Written by Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski
Directed by Tim Mason

Work in Progress is a show that is made with love and thought. At first glance, someone might assume it is the queer response to Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it isn’t.

Abby McEnany brings to us on screen a heavy, queer representation onto television that is much needed. Abby writes alongside her writing partner Tim Mason, and she stares in it too.

Comic Book Review – Teen Titans by Geoff Johns Part 1 (of 4)

Teen Titans by Geoff Johns Part 1 (of 4)
Reviews stories found in Teen Titans v3 #1-12, Teen Titans #½, Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files 2003
Written by Geoff Johns (with Judd Winick)
Art by Mike McKone, Tom Grummett, Ivan Reis, and Carlo Barberi

Geoff Johns has been one of my favorite DC Comics writers of the 21st century, especially his work on the Justice Society and The Flash. I definitely think not every character is suitable for him and his work on Teen Titans is undoubtedly some of his more mid-tier writing. That doesn’t mean it’s terrible, but I just don’t find it as exciting as those other properties. There are some interesting character arcs and plots during his tenure on the book, but it suffers from being interrupted by the Infinite Crisis event. You would think that crossover would blend better as Johns wrote it, but it awkwardly breaks up some storylines he had going at the time. However, Johns does manage to deliver some strong development for Conner Kent, aka Superboy, that has become a significant part of who he is in the stories being told today.

PopCult Podcast Mini – TV Round-Up

Seth & Ariana take a look at three new shows and talk about what they love & what they hate.

Movie Review – Pig

Pig (2021)
Written by Michael Sarnoski & Vanessa Block
Directed by Michael Sarnoski

If you have seen the trailer for this new Nicolas Cage vehicle, you will still not really understand what you will see. There are shades of a John Wick-style revenge film hinted at in this picture, yet it is absolutely nothing like those movies at all. They share a slight similarity in the inciting incident, but when it comes to themes and characters, Pig could not be more different. This is also not a movie that leans into the meme-ifcation of Cage that has become popular over the last 15 years. In reality, this is a quiet, meditative film about working through grief.

TV Review – The Sopranos Season 1

The Sopranos Season 1 (HBO)
Written by David Chase, Mark Saraceni, Jason Cahill, James Manos Jr., Frank Renzulli, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess, Joe Bosso
Directed by David Chase, Dan Attias, Nick Homez, John Patterson, Allen Coulter, Alan Taylor, Lorraine Senna, Tim Van Patten, Andy Wolk, Matthew Penn, Henry J. Bronchtein

I was a high school student working at my local library when I first encountered the Sopranos. I think I was thumbing through the newest issue of Time or Newsweek we’d just had delivered and found a full-page ad announcing the premiere of the show. I was a little confused, being someone who only had seen television series on network television. The ad read, “Welcome to the family.” Tony Soprano stood in the center. To his left were the principal members of his crew, and to his right were the members of his family and his psychiatrist. I wasn’t sure if this was a serious drama or a sitcom about a mob boss. We didn’t have HBO at home, so I didn’t think much about it. In my freshman year of college, I probably became aware of the show’s popularity, but it wouldn’t be until around 2003 that I checked out the first season from the library and watched it. Life got in the way, and I never continued the series until now.

Weekly Wonderings – August 10th, 2021

Today I woke up and felt that pang of anxiety again that I hadn’t felt since October/November. I’ve learned my anxiety lives in my gut, so it’s this awful sick to my stomach feeling. I have complete empathy for anyone feeling mental health problems right now. The world is so goddamn terrible, and anyone we’ve chosen to lead us just seems unwilling to do anything about it. I don’t know what the immediate solution will be. I know long term we have to tear down the current structures. In the same way, we moved past feudalism, we must do the same with capitalism until there is real economic democracy in the world through socialism or some similar philosophy. But do we even have the time?

Movie Review – 13 Going on 30

13 Going On 30 (2004)
Written by Cathy Yuspa & Josh Goldsmith
Directed by Gary Winick

There are movies with trailers that are locked in my mind being films I never got to watch for some reason or another. Being the youngest sibling or sometimes the odd person out, I missed out on movies.

Or maybe I thought the moment I had a chance to view it, I was too cool for it. Let it be known. I will be removing all sense of coolness.

13 Going on 30 was one of those movies for me. I just assumed it would be a female version of Big or other movies where a teenager wishes to be flirty and thirty.